Temperament-Anxiety · Social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association: risk or protective factors?
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-05-17 → 2024-06-30
- EU contribution
- €187,572
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association: risk or protective factors?
Anxiety in youth is on the rise worldwide and has severe consequences. Children with a fearful early-life temperament, so who are very inhibited and anxious, have an increased risk for developing an anxiety disorder. However, not all children with a fearful temperament will eventually develop a disorder. This Fellowship investigate social and neural factors that increased the risk for anxiety in children with fearful temperament. This was studied in the Generation R cohort study in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This unique study started with 9749 at birth, and these children were followed until they were around 13 years. Data on temperament and anxiety was available for 2730 children. I found that children with a fearful temperament, who also show negative responses after being excluded, show more anxiety symptoms at age 13. Neural factors as measured at rest were not related to temperament and anxiety. These findings suggest that research on (preventive) interventions for anxiety should focus on dealing with social rejection. Eventually, this is important to reduce problematic anxiety symptoms in children with a fearful temperament. These findings have been shared by the scientific community through presentations and open-access scientific papers. Moreover, I have also shared my research with clinicians, teachers, and children. I have develop an online lesson series for elementary school students about mental health and the brain (www.inmijnhoofd.nl) on my research during the Fellowship.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Why do some children develop anxiety while others do not? Behaviorally inhibited temperament is a strong risk factor for pediatric anxiety disorders, but not all children with behavioral inhibition develop anxiety. Identifying risk and protective factors in children with behavioral inhibition could improve early detection and prevention of anxiety disorders. I will focus on early adolescence, a pivotal developmental period for social and neural changes as well as for the development of anxiety. Notably, these changes unfold differently in boys and girls, which could influence risk for anxiety in sex-specific ways, thereby creating a female preponderance of anxiety. The goal of this study is to identify social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association in boys and girls. This fellowship will be embedded in the Generation R Study at Erasmus University Rotterdam, a unique interdisciplinary prospective cohort following 1232 children since birth. Data on temperament (at 3 years), social and neural factors (from 7-13 years), and anxiety symptoms (at 13 years) have been collected. I will study social and neural factors in a novel way by focusing on multi-informant measures of peer relations, multi-modal quantification of in-lab social behavior, and developmental trajectories of resting-state functional connectivity. The large sample size provides the unique opportunity to examine sex differences. This fellowship will allow me to bring the knowledge and skills I acquired in the USA to the Netherlands. I will expand my line of research to include social and protective factors, longitudinal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, and epidemiological methods. I will learn how to foster a strong mutual connection between research and clinical practice. Finally, I will systematically set up outreach activities, especially for children, to bridge science and society. Together, this enhances my long-term career success in academia.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM · RotterdamCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union